- This loss was due to the abundance of stupid mistakes in the 2nd period. Should a timeout have been called? Jarry pulled? You could feel the avalance coming.- Jarry had some bad luck on one, I'm sure he'd like one of the breakaway goals back... the rest were not on him. I do miss MAF most on breakaways.- Powerplay is lethal right now. Pens need to keep working hard to make the Pplay get chances.- Dumoulin had a monster 1stperiod, other moments in the game where Dumo was where opponents went to lose the puck (it went to die). Did the concussion rattle him back to - Hunwick had 3 monster blocks in the 1st period. Pens ended up with 9 total. Granted, its hard to block break aways. Not sure I want Guentzel blocking shots on PK....- Pens get right back at it vs Kings. Pens did not physically engage the Ducks, I harp on this but that 2nd period was like a sleepwalking team. A fight, Big hit... something.- While I like what I see in Simon, I would slide Rust back in there upon his return. Rust is more proven and productive than Simon.

The effort was by and large there except for the middle of the 2nd when the wheels came off, but some bouncing pucks hurt the Pens and really helped Gibson and the Ducks. Besides the 2 breakaways that were converted, there was a 3rd that the Ducks totally flubbed by missing a pass up ice with no one within 40 feet of the player. Giving up 3 breakaways in a little over 10mins is going to burn you. Jarry was OK but it will be interesting to see if they come right back with him tonight, pretty sure they will. While it might have made sense to pull Jarry when it got to 4-1 and have a game within 24hrs, Pens were still playing competitive and not ready to just mail in the rest of the game.

murphydump55 wrote:Thankfully Letang wasn't hurt by the dirty, blind side shot by Perry.

Oh and Reaves was on the ice at the same time. Perry didn't care.

Honestly, I had no idea about the Cogliano streak when I saw the replay, and I didn't think he should have been suspended. I thought a penalty and maybe a fine was warranted, but I saw no angle where contact with the head was the first point of contact. It looked more like arm/shoulder to the high chest that rode up into his chin.

That said, I thought the Perry elbow on Letang was 10 times worse. Letang is never looking at Perry at all. Perry is looking at Letang the entire time. Perry has the ability to alter his line to avoid a collision, but instead he continues to not only to make contact, but deliver a headshot that appears far more targeted than Cogliano's hit, IMO.

Based on the previous game with Oleksiak, I would assume Reaves would have received a minimum of 17 minutes of penalties, and possibly a game misconduct for a Perry retaliation. He did have a nice check on Linholm after the Linholm crosscheck. You could have Tie Domi and Marty McSorley out there last night and I don't think it would have deterred these idiot Ducks. Ducks tried to let the Pens back into the game.

Power play is so much better with Schultz over Letang. Not sure why Sullivan defaults to Letang.

Really impressed that the Pens didn't mail in the last period. A lot of luck on the Ducks part in that last ten minutes.

There's a reason he was moved from center to wing, and Rutherford envisioned him as a LW at the pro level. It's not a knock on Jake, as many guys playing center in lower levels can't handle the position at the NHL level. The Penguins have known this. You can still see it when Crosby double shifts with Sheary/Kessel. It may now be just to get looks with Sid and Phil together, but it definitely started with Guentzel not generating anything between those two.

Need a 3C badly. Another 2 weeks, a few more teams should be considering themselves sellers, and options for 3C should open up a little more.

There's a reason he was moved from center to wing, and Rutherford envisioned him as a LW at the pro level. It's not a knock on Jake, as many guys playing center in lower levels can't handle the position at the NHL level. The Penguins have known this. You can still see it when Crosby double shifts with Sheary/Kessel. It may now be just to get looks with Sid and Phil together, but it definitely started with Guentzel not generating anything between those two.

Need a 3C badly. Another 2 weeks, a few more teams should be considering themselves sellers, and options for 3C should open up a little more.

I completely agree. GMJR will not wait till the end, but he's not in a rush.

-Pens won't fair well against center-deep teams like the Ducks until that 3C-hole gets filled.-Tough breaks - thought they played very well, but fell victim to the catastrophic mistakes that a select few are prone to make. Malkin and Letang really, seriously, must stop playing roulette at the blue line with no one behind them.-Jarry was fine. Penguins goalies have been terrible on breakaways since Disco got canned and the subsequent coaches stopped dedicating half the practice to the shootout.-I know some will point to Perry's headshot and wonder why Reaves didn't stop it. The truth is there's no way of measuring his impact. Even if he becomes a slight distraction from the stars, then I don't think his presence is entirely wasted. And besides, he's playing good hockey right now (for him anyway). They're not scoring, but the fourth line has actually been spending a decent amount of time in the offensive zone so I can't complain much about that.-Hunwick reminds me of Paul Martin in his first year. Completely out of sorts, mistakes all over the ice, bad decisions. Sure, he pushes the pace more than Cole, but at what cost?

10+ minutes of icetime for Reaves last night. The Ducks surely would have been on their best behavior right? Instead Perry hunts out Letang well away from the puck even with Reaves 10 feet away from him! Reaves hasn't been horrible as a 4th liner, but let's not go labeling him as something he's not. A deterrent. I'd still rather see more skill out there instead of him, but he's not the team's biggest problem by any means.

Owchar76 wrote:10+ minutes of icetime for Reaves last night. The Ducks surely would have been on their best behavior right? Instead Perry hunts out Letang well away from the puck even with Reaves 10 feet away from him! Reaves hasn't been horrible as a 4th liner, but let's not go labeling him as something he's not. A deterrent. I'd still rather see more skill out there instead of him, but he's not the team's biggest problem by any means.

That's Perry though. He's done that kind of stuff for over 10 years now - that's who he is. Mike Tyson couldn't get him to stop.

Now that we're half way home, it does feel like Sid, Geno, and Letang have taken less crap from opposing teams than in the past, but there is no way to measure that. Could be they're getting older and less prone to that type of altercation, but if they feel safer with Reaves there, who can argue that?

I've commented before how teams have played the Pens different than the play the next team. They played the Pens less physical, less cheap. But it is hockey. Reaves is not going to turn it into ice dancing. It is still going to be physical, but if you watch more than just Pens games you can see a difference in how others play the Pens this year vs other teams.

The whole it's still a physical game just seems to be beyond some people's grasp.